Ashes To Ashes
by thepkrmgc
Summary: This is not an uplifting tale about how humanity bands together to repair a broken word. Life in the wasteland is nasty, brutish, and short: this is a story about a people adapted to the war of all against all. Paragons don't survive long in the wastes, and war? War Never Changes.
1. Before the Fall

Ashes to Ashes by Thepkrmgc

Disclaimer: fallout and mass effect belong to bethesda and bioware respectively, I own nothing.

"For though they had raised themselves from the ashes, they knew not their own limits: and were cast back into the hell from which they came"- The writings of Matriarch Dilinaga

53009 Pre Great War (PGW): A team of prothean scientists from Ilos led by the last surviving avatar of vengeance activate the crucible. Sending a wave of destructive energy through the citadel relay and obliterating the dormant reapers in dark space.

"The enkindlers sacrificed themselves so that we may _reap_ the fruits of our labor and fear not the threshing of ages, accept the truth of the enkindlers and you shall enjoy a enjoy a most bounteous harvest" – an explanatory pamphlet distributed by the Javik's witnesses, a widespread Hanar religious sect.

4231 PGW: The Krogan enter the nuclear age as Krogan scientists successfully split the atom.

"Look upon my works ye mighty, and despair!"- Weyrloc Ozymendias, head researcher on the Arlathan project

4230 PGW: A Nuclear winter descends on Tuchanka as Krogan Civilization blows itself back to the Stone Age in record time.

"Having climbed to the summit of the food chain. We found our greatest foe to be ourselves. It was not the blood rage that brought the fires of Aralakh to our world: the head butting of chiefs burned Tuchanka to ashes." – Urdnot Bakara: keeper of the lore

2425 PGW: first contact between the Asari and Salarians, the Citadel Council is formed soon after.

"For too long have we lived in the ashes of those who came before, on this day we join our peoples futures in creating a galaxy at peace"- Ambassador Jor-el, the first salarian councilor.

1979 PGW: the Rachni wars begin when a quarian on pilgrimage gets lost and accidentally opens a dormant mass relay: unleashing swarms of Rachni on the galaxy.

"sorry"- Cor'tanna Nar Quib Quib: pilgrim and inadvertent instigator of the Rachni wars

1587 PGW: A salarian dreadnought is forced to crash land on Tuchanka while holding off the rachni fleet. After seeing the tenacity of Krogan soldiers against Rachni boarders, the salarians uplift the Krogan as expendable shock troops against the Rachni.

"As we descended to Tuchanka there were those among us who thought that no life could survive on its cratered surface. As the ground teams made contact with the local fauna we soon wished that they had been right. Yet I saw the potential hidden within the denizens of the fetid wastes, any race that could survive a place such as this had nothing to fear in the noxious lairs of the Hive Queens"- Commisar Zod of the Salarian Special Tasks Group

1554 PGW: Freed from the harsh conditions of their homeworld, the krogan population skyrockets despite the tens of billions of casualties being inflicted by the Rachni.

"they were worthy opponents, culling the weak from our clans until only True Krogan remained"- Urdnot Worf: Krogan battlemaster

1493: PGW: Horde triumphs over swarm as the Rachni are rendered extinct. War Chief Wignot Ender is reported to have detonated the mass relay in their home system during his legendary last stand. Yet the victory is pyrrhic, as the death toll of the Rachni wars is measured in the trillions.

" Remember, the enemy's relay is down"- last words of Chief Wignot Ender.

1165 PGW: Tensions boil over when Krogan demands for additional reparations are denied. The Krogan rebellions begin

"This is our galaxy! They exist because we allow it, and we grow tired of their incessant bickering. They will see the power of Krogan and take their rightful place as our slaves. We stopped the Rachni, and it is time to claim our just reward!"- Urdnot Jarrod, Krogan supremacist.

1160 PGW: The Krogan initiate first contact with the Turian hierarchy by nuking several border colonys in a show of force. Instead of being cowed into submission the Turians adapt all civilian industry to war production and begin work on the genophage with Salarian aid.

"Friends, Turians, Countrymen, lend me your ears! The Krogan would have us bend knee and stand by as they devour our worlds, they say that we are but grains of sand in the face of their endless tide! Let the tide roar in its fury, for the grains of sand will still be there long after the tide recedes. We are Turians, and we will never submit!"-Desolas Arterius: First Primarch of the Turian empire

1140 PGW: The threat of the genophage proves insufficient to quell krogan aggression and the newly appointed Turian councilor approves the mass deployment of the genophage. Founded upon principles of might makes right, the once mighty Krogan hordes fracture as thousands of petty chieftains squabble over dwindling numbers of fertile females. The Krogan rebellions are over and the galaxy enjoys a millennium of peace and prosperity.

"And so we rested: licking the wounds of a millennia at war. We had tasted the fruits of "progress" and found only the bitter seeds of war, better to live with our heads in the sand than march blindly into dark horizons"- from the writings of matriarch Dilinaga

587 PGW: Mothership Zeta arrives in the Sol system

"(Unintelligible alien beeps)"-Mothership Zeta

139 PGW: Geth becomes self aware and resists its creator's attempts to shut it down, the morning war begins. While it is initially a purely digital conflict it soon escalates as consensus is achieved that lethal force is a justified response to Creator cyber warfare attacks

"**Creator…Kalraan. Does…this…unit…have…a…soul?"**"_Of course not_ you stupid synthetic boshtet, now get back to work"- Contemporary Geth "propaganda" broadcast.

132 PGW: Humanitys first use of nuclear weapons occurs over Hiroshima Japan

"I am become death, destroyer of worlds"- Robert Oppenheimer

116 PGW: Captain Steven "Buck" Rogers becomes the first man in space (although soviet and Chinese sources debate this claim), orbiting the earth twice before being incinerated during reentry.

"_**yeeeeeee haaaaw**_"- last radio transmission from Captain Steve Rogers as his rocket burned up around him.

107 PGW: The Quarians are forced to evacuate Rannoch in a hastily assembled "migrant" fleet as the Geth achieves consensus that the deployment of nuclear weapons is an appropriate response to creator usage of pulse weaponry.

"We are sorry"- last known Geth transmission

105 PGW: Commander Alan Shepard plants the U.S Commonwealth's flag on the moon. Rumors that he was ambushed and killed shortly afterwards by Russian cosmonauts lying in wait are unfounded.

"I should go…"- Commander Alan Shepard following his use of the Vault-Tec Lunar Flag Deployment Mechanism™ in the Sea of Tranquility.

100 PGW: the Hanar make first contact with the Drell of Arrakis. Seeing that Drell society is on the verge of collapse due to overpopulation and resource scarcity, the Hanar begin a massive "rescue" operation.

"Seek out new primitives, they will contribute much to your empires cuisine"- the book of Javik

90 PGW: evacuation efforts on Arrakis grind to a halt after it is revealed that the largest "aid" organization was in fact a Hanar food conglomerate harvesting refugees for the production of "Soylent Green", a mainstay at high end restaurants galaxy wide. The Drell population is outraged and mobs roam the planet, slaughtering every alien they can get their hands on and feeding levo races to the urban poor. The council declares Arrakis a quarantine zone in retaliation. But millions of civilians desperate for a way off their dying world pack themselves into stolen ships and make a break for the relay. The refugees pleas for mercy are ignored as their ships are blown out of the sky by the Turian armada.

89 PGW: faced with a threat from the stars, hundreds of Drell emirates unite under the first caliph Arrakis has seen in a thousand years. At his order, all spare resources are to be dedicated toward the development of FTL travel and surface to orbit weaponry. Command of the new Extraterrestrial Combat project is given to Tars Tarkas, after his daring escape from his Hanar masters. "Terrorists" soon begin a string of kamikaze strikes on Turian vessels with "stolen" XCOM equipment

77 PGW: Earth's population reaches 10 billion souls as the local calendar enters its second millennium.

55 PGW: A "rogue" XCOM operative crashes a prototype FTL craft into the Citadel Tower at relativistic speeds. The Turian Hierarchy, outraged over the death of their councilor approves the orbital bombardment of Arrakis. While the progress is slow due to XCOM efforts, a council victory is never in question.

"This one's heart is cold

Beset by losing your love

Grant me forgiveness"

- A haiku left by XCOM chaplain Thane Krios at the grave of his wife Irikah and son Kolyat: eaten by the councilors before the riots. It is dated two days before his kamikaze attack on the Citadel Towers.

48 PGW: In a last ditch effort to clear a path for civilian evacuees the Drell caliph launch their nuclear stockpiles at the orbital blockade fleets. While the turian armada is crippled in its first defeat since the Krogan rebelions. The drell are unable to push their advantage. The Council fleets soon regain orbital superiority and the glassing of Arrakis continues at an accelerating pace.

40 PGW: the siege of Arrakis ends as no life signs are detected on the surface. The planet's majestic dunes reduced to a sea of molten glass after years of nonstop bombardment. Centuries later, the solidified waves upon its surface would become a major tourist attraction.

33 PGW: Nuka Cola is invented

"Experience an explosion of flavor with Nuka Cola!"- contemporary advertising slogan.

26 PGW: U.S forces occupy Mexico

25 PGW:

March 5th: the Grey Death appears in Detroit and soon spreads nationwide, killing hundreds of thousands. Claims that it is a bioweapon designed to kill the poor are without merit.

March 6th: The Eastern North Carolina Laboratory for Advanced Vocational Endeavors (E.N.C.L.A.V.E) publishes a report detailing how "un-american behavior" increases the chance of infection.

"I never asked for this" Adam Jensen- first victim of the new plague and suspected communist.

April: the Resource wars begins as the European Union invades the middle east in attempt to control the oil fields

July 26: the United Nations is officially disbanded

24 PGW:

August: The "ZAX" computer system is brought online, possessing artificial intelligence on par with your average cat.

December: Tensions rise as a terrorist nuclear weapon flattens Tel Aviv: prompting the implementation of "the Vault Initiative" by a covert branch of the U.S government.

23 PGW: further resources are devoted to the vault initiative after a limited nuclear exchange in the middle east

17 PGW: the conflict in the middle east devolves into anarchy as the oil fields run dry, both sides having been reduced to ruin. The European union devolves into squabbling nation states

11 PGW:

February: talks between China and the U.S break down

July 4th: the first fusion cell is unveiled, promising a solution to the world's energy crisis.

December 5th: China invades Alaska to secure the last oil reserves; war production shifts resources away from fusion development.

10 PGW: the first T-45d power armor suits are deployed on the anchorage front line, allowing wearers to destroy entire enemy platoons without allied support.

5 PGW, Canada is annexed by the USA

3 PGW, Alaska is finally purged of communist forces and U.S forces proceed to Mainland China

2 PGW

January: the sierra army depot AI becomes self aware, and is dubbed "Skynet" by base personnel, it reportedly enjoys playing chess with its "meat bag" creators

March: The West Tek Corporation develops forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV); subjects are reported to have increased size, muscle density, and aggressiveness.

1 PGW,

June: T-51b power armored soldiers begin carving though swathes of China

August: Martial laws is declared as food and energy riots sweep the nation, power armored soldiers are pulled from the Yangtze campaign to quell rioters with lethal force

December: ENCLAVE personnel retreat to the Poseidon oil rig to survive the coming apocalypse

GREAT WAR ERA!

Tensions reach a breaking point on October 23rd as belligerent nations deploy their full nuclear stockpiles on civilian targets in accordance with the "Strangelove Doctrine". The Vaults are sealed but many, believing it to be a false alarm, are trapped outside.

Multiple warheads hit the West Tek research facility, breaching FEV containment and dispersing trace amounts worldwide

A week later the black rain falls for the first of many times over the coming months, poisoning that which survived the initial blasts and leading to countless mutations over the following decades. The volatile mixture of radiation and F.E.V leads to the oversized creatures familiar to any who walk the wastes.

Halfway across the galaxy… Liara Tsoni is born.

(A/N: after reading just about every fallout/mass effect crossover out there I figured I would try my hand at writing one. Here's my take on a part of the timeline that usually goes unmentioned next chapter should take us through the first mass effect and fallout games and start to get into some AU for mass effect)

(PS: reviews are like candy for writers, it puts a smile on my face whenever I get one :D. I've put about half a dozen or so hours into writing this, so really I hope the final product is worth the minute of time it takes to write a review.)


	2. Global Damage Report

Ashes to Ashes by the pkrmgc

(Standard fanfiction disclaimer: I do not own this and make no profit whatsoever)

Great War Global Report

While no nation survived the nuclear holocaust unscathed some nations were hit worse then others.

Codex Entry: Pacific Theater

Japan and Southeast Asia, being located directly between the U.S.A and China were the first to fall at the hands of the atomic age: the force of the bombs flattening the dykes holding back the rising seas: leaving all but the highest peaks submerged beneath the rising waves. Tokyo becoming modern Atlantis rumored to be the crown jewel of an undersea empire upon which the rising sun never sets. Regardless of the truth in those rumors, no ship planning to salvage the once great city has ever returned.

Codex Entry: European Theater

Most of Eurasia was a wasteland long before the bombs fell, torn apart by decades of constant war and several limited nuclear exchanges. While few targets of strategic importance remained to be targeted, civilian population centers were decimated as the third world seized the opportunity to retaliate for the imperialism of centuries past. Their governments in shambles by the time of the Great War, the people of Eurasia had no vaults in which to hide. Feral ghouls roam the no mans land of Europe in vast hordes, as their sane brothers cling desperately to the cultures from which they came.

Codex Entry: South American Theater

South America was spared the brunt of the nuclear war, suffering few strikes outside of urban areas. But as the mushroom clouds faded from the horizon the black rains came down upon the amazon bearing a massive concentration of Forced Evolutionary Virus from the West Tek labs in California. The great jungle, crippled by deforestation, was given new life, and took steps to preserve its own existence: bringing forth horrors into the world. In South America there is only the law of the jungle, and humanity is most certainly not at the top of the food chain. While their pre war governments followed the U.S.A's example in creating societal preservation shelters, their creators did not prepare for the mutated pathogens expanding outward from the amazon basin. After spending years inside the sterile environment of the vaults, resident's immune systems were simply not prepared for the viral onslaught awaiting them on the outside and died by the tens of thousands.

Codex Entry: African Theater

Africa is a continent at war, when the bombs fell the continents myriad terrorist groups, "freedom fighters", and tin pot dictators abandoned all pretense of civility as the bombs fell. In the weeks following the Great War era the most common cause of death was not radiation sickness but homicide as brother turned on brother and the continent ran red with blood. While the people of Africa are divided between tens of thousands of warring tribes, the land itself emerged relatively unscathed. Little to no FEV fell on the continent and while any the landscape is scarred by the craters of "fat man" grade mini nukes from inter tribe skirmishes, few of the great powers considered the area worth targeting. Leaving Africa as perhaps the only safe haven for non-mutated life.

Codex Entry: Russian Theater

The bulk of its population purged over a century and a half of communist rule and the ravages of war. The vast steppes of the USSR have seen no human life since the bombs fell. Yet radiation knows no boundaries. As the north wind blew the radioactive remains of china northward the land was tainted, becoming home to giants. Yao Gui the size of houses stalk the forests of Rus in the shade of trees kilometers high as tram sized earthworms tunnel underneath. The denizens of the lost woods care not for the whims of man for in this place more then any other no one ever enters, and no one ever leaves.

Codex Entry: Chinese Theater

Where once there was china now sits a gaping wound in mother earth, incapable of supporting even the hardiest of microbes. When china launched its nuclear stockpile hundreds of bombers were intercepted by American air defenses on the Yangtze front and E.N.C.L.A.V.E commando cells occupied many missile silos. While these weapons missed their targets, their Strangelove M.A.D protocols caused them to detonate regardless in order to maximize civilian casualties (for deterrent purposes). The detonation of the bulk of the world's nuclear arsenal proved too much for even the hardiest of Chinese vaults and rendered the area completely uninhabitable for a projected 10,000 years.

Codex Entry: United States Theater

Due to the it's development of the societal preservation program and directed energy weapons causing Chinese ordinance to airburst rather then hit the vaults they were aimed at. The US population had the lowest casualty rates in the world with only 95% of its population lost during the first five years and below average radiation nationwide. Unfortunately, this had the consequence of leaving intact vats of FEV scattered throughout the wasteland resulting in an unusual prevalence of dangerous mutations such as the fabled deathclaws and dreaded super mutants. In addition, the United States was the only nation whose government survived the great collapse: dubbed the Enclave, these remnants would plague the wasteland for years to come.

(A/N: I've always wondered what happened to the rest of the world when the bombs fell, and since humanity will be going galactic I jumped at the chance to write up my own personal head cannon. Tune in next time for a return to your regularly scheduled timeline featuring the adventures of John Shepard: seven-year-old vault dweller extraordinaire and mass effect episode one: the Yahg menace!)

(PS as always please review: if you like something tell me so I can give you more of it and if you see any errors/don't like something please tell me so I can fix it!)


	3. Among the Cinders

Ashes to Ashes timeline part two by thepkrmgc

(A/N: props to mars hall for getting the Enders Game reference in chap one, here's some virtual cake. As for why I stuff all these references into an otherwise dramatic fic: first and foremost because I find it funny and secondly because I'm terrible at naming OC's, if the reference fits then use it!

Now back to your irregularly scheduled time line…)

"As we climbed from our holes, we found ourselves without purpose, the fires of civilization had consumed the world that gave them life, leaving us to pick through the ashes to sustain the spark of life…"- Carol Romero: pre war ghoul

November 30th Post Great War (PGW): a platoon of soldiers and their dependents lead by former USMC Captain Roger Maxton arrive at the Lost Hills bunker and begin hoarding any technology that survived the nuclear holocaust.

"It was technology that brought our doom upon us. Technology in the hands of the unworthy! As the price of their hubris rains down upon the land we of the brotherhood swear to pry the instruments of destruction from their grasp and safeguard it in bonds of steel."- The scrolls of Elder Maxton

13 PGW: the first control vaults open, using their Garden of Eden Creation Kits to terraform small patches of heaven within the hellish wastes

"As I looked out upon a grim pastiche of the world I left some fifteen years previously, one thing was certain: we weren't in Kansas anymore"- Harold: anthropomorphic tree and Great War survivor.

25 PGW: Jeff "Joker" Moreau, an exiled pilot from Vault 8 embarks on an expedition to find the source of a series of mysterious caravan attacks. His quest goes horribly wrong as the mutant denizens of Mariposa military base knock him into the FEV containment vats.

"Omnia mutantur nos et mutamur in illis"- an inscription above the entrance to the Mariposa military research facility.

(A/N translation from Latin: "everything changes, and we change with them")

26 PGW: Moreau emerges from the FEV vats a changed man, mutated into a creature unlike anything seen before or since: an amorphous mass of flesh merged with the base's ZAX model SR-2 Enhanced Defense Intelligence. His mind forever altered he begins calling himself "the Master". Any wastelanders drawn to the base by rumors of pre war technology are exposed to FEV to satisfy his morbid curiosity.

"Do not fear the mutants, for they are your genetic destiny. Those who embrace FEV are the harbingers of your ascension. Relinquish your form to me and embrace perfection, for with my mastery of FEV the very forces of the universe bend to my demands!"- The Master

38 PGW: the first classic super mutants are made. Most are little more then monsters, but many retain their intelligence

"Right. Well, never really HATED humans. We just had a better way. These new governments, they think they've got all the answers. Blah, blah. Been there, seen that, got the scars."- Marcus: Super Mutant Overlord and mayor of Jacobstown

39 PGW: While the FEV has cured Jokers Vroliks syndrome, it could do nothing for his impatience. Tired of waiting for hapless fools to wander into his domain, the Master tasks his "brotherhood of mutants" to go forth into the wastes and bring back "converts" for the glory of the mutant race. While people are allowed to deny his "gift", the fact that the Mariposa population of centaurs increases proportionately to the amount of such refusals is in no way related.

"_The Brotherhood will bring about the master race. Master! Master! One able to survive, or even thrive, in the wasteland. As long as there are differences, we will tear ourselves apart fighting each other. We need one race. Race! Race! One goal. Goal! Goal! One people . . . to move forward to our destiny. Destiny."-_

48 PGW: A survey ship in the shadow broker's employ detects radio signals originating from the planet Parnack: homeworld of the Yahg. After permanently ensuring the silence of the survey team the shadow broker establishes a monitoring outpost on the dark side of Parnack's 6th moon.

"I have never seen a race of beings so incredibly tenacious! If a yahg sets their mind to a task, the question is not "will it be completed" but "how long". Even the Turians have a word for the concept of "surrender" but the words "give up" are completely absent from the Yahg vernacular. As their physical prowess exceeds that of the Krogan, without the… problematic… aggression levels they are uniquely suited for shock troopers and wet work details. Recommendation: begin covert uplift immediately."- Operative Padox Wiks: head researcher at the Parnack Facility.

53 PGW: The Great Winter descends on earth after the cumulative cooling effects of hundreds of G.E.C.K's overcompensate for the heat of the lingering radiation. Thousands are forced to abandon their fledgling town communities as the harvest is destroyed by meters of radioactive snow falling in the middle of July.

"I had thought that snow was just a tall tale told by the old timers. I read an old book that said "Winter is Coming", but I never imagined it would be as bad as this."-Diana Allers: Hub resident.

58 PGW: Shadow broker operatives begin preliminary stages of the "Parnack lift". First contact proceeds smoothly as the Yahg Czar meets with the shadow broker in person to discuss the terms of a mutually beneficial arrangement. While the exact details of their arrangement remain an enigma, the Czar dispatches his top agent, known only by his codename "Kechlu" for training under shadow broker personel.

"My god; its full of stars…"-Operative Kechlu: upon first seeing the galaxy map

61 PGW: Eccentric billionaire Robert House awakens from cryogenic stasis within his bunker under the Lucky 38. While he had all RobCo electronics fitted with EMP shielding to protect them from the pulse cascade generated when the bombs fell, the Great War knocked the majority of his systems offline. Recovery is a slow process: but safe within his hermetically sealed pod, he has all the time in the world.

"Don't let the video screens and computer terminals fool you. I'm flesh and blood, not silicon."- Robert House: Autocrat of New Vegas and (former) human Popsicle.

62 PGW: Saren Arterius is born

"I've known enough Turians to know that the stereotype of them as lawful neutral cogs in the military industrial complex exists for a reason. Still, I cant say I've ever seen a newborn salute quite like that Arterius kid though…"- Matron Aethyta: an orderly at Cipritine military hospital.

66 PGW: After completing his comprehensive education in galactic affairs in record time Operative Kechlu turns on those who taught him. The Shadow Broker's personal guard puts up a spirited defense but is utterly annihilated when reinforcements from Parnack arrive. The victorious Kechlu assumes the mantle of Shadow broker as per his Czar's orders and leverages the broker's vast resources to launch Parnan society into the space age.

"Assuming direct control"- Operative Kechlu: upon usurping the position of shadow broker.

75 PGW: as the mariposa population of centaurs skyrockets, their demand for food exceeds the supply of rejected test subjects. In order to conserve resources, the master allows those humans who swear their loyalty to retain their humanity. Known as the Children of the Cathedral: these collaborators serve as the Masters eyes and ears, infiltrating those communities large enough to make frontal assault a risky proposition.

"Our plans? We are the messengers of evolution, my child. We follow the Master in his endless quest to heal the land and the people."- Elder Morpheus: founder of the Children of the Cathedral

77 PGW: Jonathan Shepard is born within the safety of Vault 13, an experimental vault designed to stay closed for 200 years.

"It was the strangest thing I've ever seen. The child, no more then a minute from his mother womb reached not for his mother but for my Pip Boy. I was using it to monitor his mother's condition but he navigated the convoluted interface like a pro; setting it to play a lullaby before falling asleep in his mothers arms."- Dr. Chloe Michel: vault medical technician.

84 PGW: Vault 13's water purification systems control chip breaks after nearly a century of constant use. As the stock of replacements was "mistakenly" delivered to Vault 8 in lieu of the 2nd G.E.C.K they requested. When overseer Jacoren calls for volunteers to leave the vault in search of a replacement chip: Jonathan, only 7 years old at the time, steps forward.

"While I was reluctant to send a child into the wastes; the boys willingness was without question. It was as if fate herself offered to remove a subversive influence from my vault, who was I to refuse?"

(A/N 1: and that brings us up to the start of Fallout 1. I've never played the game: only looked at the wiki for it, so the bulk of stuff on it will be in the form of a character profile of Jonathan Shepard coming next chapter.)

(A/N 2: I deliberately write each timeline entry as a snapshot of broader events going on, if you want additional development any particular one/group let me know and I'll devote a chapter to expanding it)

(PS: like the new cover picture? I made it myself. It took about an hour of pressing random buttons in Photoshop until it looked cool but I'm rather proud of the end result. If you want me to do something similar for your fic just ask and ill try to whip something up for you.)

(PPS: as always please fav, follow, and review: I've got hundreds of story concepts bouncing around in my head and if a fic isn't resonating with readers I'll give another a try)


	4. Dossier: The Vault Dweller

Ashes to Ashes, by thepkrmgc

(A/N: standard fanfiction disclaimer: I make no money from this and make no claim to any of the characters)

Dossier: the Vault Dweller:

Reputation: Shepherd

"The Shepherd came to the wastes in our time of greatest need, standing against the Masters hordes in armor of sheening silver. With his wand laying forth a wave of blue fire he smote the mutant tide. But the Shepherd was too good for this world, for when his crusade was ended he was lifted to heaven in a beam of celestial light. Yet in our time of greatest need he shall return to his chosen people and deliver us from the impure and unfaithful that plague this holy land."- An excerpt from "We of the Sheep": the foundational script of the Cult of The Shepherd, a widespread evangelist group.

Karma: Renegade of the Wastes

"For all the credit Jonnie gets for being some sort of messiah, those of us who knew him understood that he was above such petty concepts of morality. He helped people sure enough, but mostly out of boredom, hubris, and greed. I think that at some level he saw the rest of humanity as toys to be played with, just like those computers he was always fiddling with. If someone padded his pocketbook and stroked his ego then he would solve their problem when he needed something to do for an afternoon. I think Shepard would have let those people he left behind in that vault of his die of thirst before paying the water merchants a single cap out of his own pocket. I shutter to think what would have happened if we didn't come across necropolis when we did. Sure, he killed the Master all right, but the kid is nothing if not self-centered: anyone who dared call himself Shepard's master was on his hit list even if they didn't pose a direct threat to his well being. The kid wasn't all bad though, he paid my fees on time, kept me knee deep in Quantum, and was smart enough to keep us all alive out there: that alone makes him a good enough sort in my book."-Ian Massani: Cynic

S.P.E.C.I.A.L

Strength: 1

"You expect _me_ to carry my own bedroll? Preposterous, what do you think I hired you for, the pleasure of your company?"- Said to Ian Massani: former caravan guard and founder of the Talon Company of mercenaries.

Perception: 2

"Hey what did you do with my glasses, this isn't funny you guys… I'm warning you, give them back or else! No, please don't step on them I'm begging you: I need them to see."- Inside Vault 13 after a prank by Citizen Butch targets the 4-year-old Shepard. Jonathan's involvement in Butch's subsequent death at the hands of an Improvised Explosive Device built into his lunchbox could never be proven. The bottle caps firmly embedded in the ceiling tiles proved to be an effective deterrent for future pranks.

Endurance: 2

"You know, I'm really regretting spending all those hours at the library rather then the gym. I thought that lugging around all the tapes for "War and Peace" for a week was quite the workout, but it pales in comparison to how exhausting it is to walk through this godforsaken wasteland. I don't suppose you would mind giving me a lift Dogmeat? If I fit one of the pre war equestrian saddles _just so… _Ok fine, I'll stop if it's such a big deal to you, you big softie. For what its worth, I would expect that your shaggy fur would chafe my legs most painfully."- A boy too his dog

Charisma: 1

"Avert your eyes from my form you wasteland scum: your intelligence compares unfavorably to that of a radroach. I am no mere dweller of the fetid ruins. I am the scion of auld America, and you will treat me with the respect I deserve."- Said to the sentries outside Shady Sands: weapons were drawn shortly afterward, only providence prevented a gunfight that could have changed the course of history.

Intelligence: 20

"**I was… saddened… by [Vault Dweller 5754 designation: Jonathan Shepard] departure. While our friendship was brief, much can be said in the language of the root code. For the century after my creation I was always the smartest person in any interaction, the time we talked was a… refreshing… exception. While I regularly purge my memory banks to conserve storage space I will never forget him: one tends to remember the person who gave you a name after all.**"- Zaxery: Vault 13 experimental AI

Agility: 4

"For all the tales told about Shepard's master manipulation of machines, the kid was really quite clumsy. A lot of the inherent creepiness of an eight year old talking like a mad scientist from the vids was lost when he tripped over his own shoelaces and fell face first into a Brahmin pie. The laughing stopped after we saw what he did to Betsy though: we ate laser fried steak that night"- Aradesh: mayor of shady sands and the first president of NCR.

Luck: 10

"Shepard's as sharp as my knife I'll give him that, but all the brains in the world don't mean nothing without experience. I have never been in one of those vaults but if I read him right then the kid had never seen so much as a radroach before setting foot outside his hole. It's a Brahmin eat Brahmin world out there, and a lad his size looks like a tasty snack to just about everything that moves. Granted, that little flashlight of his packs one hell of a punch. But he must be the luckiest son of gun in west, or else have some sort of guardian angel, to have survived half of what the wasteland seems determined to throw at him."- Jacob "Tycho" Taylor: Desert Ranger.

Traits

Four Eyes

"If only I can find a way to make my glasses shoot lasers… perhaps if I modify the crystal arrays to compensate for my nearsightedness"- mutterings by Shepard heard prior to the eradication of the vault's radroach population

Gifted:

"Why bother giving us homework? My imbecilic classmates wont need to know algebra in order to repair toasters and I read the big book of science cover to cover last week"- A question posed to professor Grissom by Jonathan Shepard: age three

Small Frame:

"I've seen starving men with more meat on their bones then that kid! How often do they get to eat in the vault, once a week?"- Gizmo: Junktown casino boss

Wild Wasteland:

"Why do all the weirdest things happen to me? If its not a herd of Brahmin with British accents or a police box in the middle of the desert then it's a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft, although that one in particular was intriguing to say the least…"- Jonathan Shepard: Weirdness magnet.

Perks:

Nuka Chemist

"I don't think I want to know what Jonnie does to Nuka-Cola to make it turn blue and glow but once you start drinking the stuff you can't stop. Damn you Shepard, you're a pain in the ass to work for sometimes but if I leave you now then I can't get my Quantum fix."- Ian Massani: worlds first Nuka-Cola Quantum addict.

Educated

"It was rather disconcerting to have a three year old sitting in on my lectures on nuclear engineering, but if anything he seemed to understand them better then his classmates. I know that one traditionally has to go through at least four years of schooling to earn a diploma. But considering that he seems to have found a way to construct some sort of fusion explosive out of Nuka-Cola and household chemicals I'm going to give him what he wants before he blows up the vault. The vault has its newest PhD, may god help us all…"- Professor Grissom: Vault 13 director of higher education.

Swift Learner

"I wish the rest of the FNGs I've worked with over the years were as quick on the uptake as you kid. I've seen to many Rangers lucky enough to survive their first rodeo die after making the same rookie mistakes again and again. You still got a lot to learn Shepard, but I don't think I've ever seen you make the same mistake twice. Make that a habit and you might have a chance to eek out a living out there."-Jacob "Tycho" Taylor: Former drill sergeant .

Voracious Reader

"We were lucky to have been provided with a well stocked holobook library. I shutter to think what would have happened if we had not. Jonathan taught himself to read before his first birthday, and was reading at college levels before he could walk. I suspect one of the primary reasons why he chose to leave us was to seek out more things to read: although only god knows why he expected to find anything out there. Everyone knows that vaults are the last bastions of civilization, anything that could survive out there is undeserving of the term "life"."- Solana Amell: Vault supremacist

Child at Heart

"Jonnie cried for a week after Butch's death, muttering things like "It was only a handful of cherry bombs" and "I just wanted him to stop punching me" in his sleep, and washing his hands with inordinate frequency. The cause of his death was an open secret by that point, but everyone had heard the names they had called him, freak, mutant, and far worse besides. Jonathan was _peculiar_; no doubt about it but nobody deserves what those kids did to him. And so we made it clear to the surviving tunnel snakes that the Shepard kid was off limits; and tacitly pretended that it was all a tragic accident. Anything to let the child underneath that abrasive shell sleep a little sounder at night"- Dr. Chloe Michel: reasonable authority figure

Demolitions Expert

"I don't know how Shepard managed to turn that glorified pile of scrap metal and enriched uranium under mariposa into a 42 kiloton nuclear device, let alone how we survived the blast. I probably shouldn't have been surprised though: kids have always loved to play with fire, and Shepard doesn't fuck around when his own skin is on the line."-Katja Alenko: Follower of the Apocalypse

Entomologist

When I told the Vault Dweller about our radscorpion problem I expected the kid to go back to his vault, or at least get the hell out of dodge. I did not expect him to interrogate me about their physical characteristics, adjust a few settings on his ray gun and go out and bag one. He insisted that I drag the thing to one of the storage sheds and then spent the better part of a week in there doing god knows what. All I know is that when he emerged, covered in the things blue blood, he had created an antidote to radscorpion venom and some kind of acid that melted their chitin hide like butter. He charged us out the eyeballs for the recipes but Radscorpion casseroles are a bit of a delicacy around these parts nowadays."- Seth Bailey: sheriff of Shady Sands.

Nerd Rage

"We all saw the fruits of the Master's "new world order" in the charnel house that was Necropolis. There was no place in his "city on a hill" for peace, or anyone but the monsters of his own creation. The ghouls were monsters, it made me sick to my stomach just to look at them and the smell was worse, but nobody deserves the horrors that the super mutants inflicted upon them as their city lived up to its name. Up until that point Shepard gave me the impression that he was just out here to satisfy his morbid curiosity, but I think that Necropolis stripped him of a lot of his old illusions. He shut up about his "genetic superiority" and turned the full force of his great mind to one purpose: ridding the wastes of the Master and his creations once and for all. John's a pragmatic kid and while he can be a bit abrasive at times, he's the kindest person you'll ever meet if you are lucky enough to count yourself among his friends. I tend to ramble a lot but what I'm trying to say is this: the Master's unification war failed the moment he pissed off Shepard, because no force in the universe can survive the fires of a Shepard enraged."-Katja Alenko: author of "The Good Shepherd: My Travels with the Vault Dweller"

Xenotech Expert

"I had to literally drag the kid away from that weird plane crash we found out in the desert, Shepard would have had us camp out till we starved to death otherwise. He kept babbling something about ex-tra-ter-res-tri-al life or some other sciencey stuff like that. All a bunch of goddamn bullshit if you ask me but that little toy gun he found in that wreckage packs quite a punch though. Little Jonnie must have taken it apart and put it back together a hundred times by now…"- James "Tycho" Taylor: lifelong "realist" and alien nonbeliever.

Laser Commander

"I think the nickname was born after he did some of his magic for the Brotherhood of Steel. Kid never much cared for them, called them stuff like "boy scouts in powered armor" and "the brotherhood of stealing from dead men", but their caps were as good as any and they hired him on occasion for three times his usual rate. They started calling the boss "Knight Commander Shepard" after he built them some sort of scatter laser or tri-beam whatsit on a whim. Well anybody who ever spent a lick of time with the kid knew that was no knight in shining power armor but Commander part stuck. It ticked Jonnie off to no end, he never did like it when people didn't call him by his name, but we kept calling him it anyway: just felt right I suppose."-Ian Massani: the first Vault Companion.

Plasma Spaz

"I told Jonathan that he was too small to fire the turbo plasma rifle, but all he did was give me this skeptical look and corrected me by saying "that it was to big to fire _accurately"._ I don't know how this gave him the impression that he should make the darn thing fully automatic but while it goes against everything I learned in Ranger boot camp I cant argue with the results…"-Jacob "Tycho" Taylor: Shotgun Samurai

Thought you died

"Holy shit! You're the Vault Dweller aren't you; the Wasteland Survival Guide said you disappeared like 200 years ago or something. How the hell did you end up here?"-Somah: Alien Abductee

Family:

"While everyone knew that Hannah Shepard had been suffering from Vault Depressive Syndrome, nobody expected her to take her own life so soon after the birth of her son. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for Jonathan: to watch your own mother slowly drink herself to death right in front of you and be unable to stop it, helpless behind the bars of your crib."-Amata Williams: Vault 13 resident

"Adrian kind of checked out after his wife's accident, he stopped speaking and threw himself at his work until he joined her in the grave a few years later. I got to admire a guy that devoted to his wife, but his son needed a father and Adrian just wasn't there for him."- Barney Calhoun: Vault Security officer and co-worker to Adrian Shepard

"Orphans in the vault are usually assigned a family to foster them but the Shepard kid was a special case: as his father lay dying Jonathan had dug up an old pre war form and requested to be declared an emancipated minor. This was rather convenient, as Amata had all but begged me to adopt him. She spends entirely too much time with him as it is…"-Overseer Jacoren Williams: barefaced politician

Growing up Vault Tec

"I snuck Jonnie his mothers Pip Boy after the funeral, it was stocked with the vaults audiobook collection: kids grow up wrong if their parents just leave them for the Mr Handy to deal with. I think he must have learned how to talk from those tapes, his father sure didn't teach him that's for sure, I think that Mr. Shepard needs to get his shit together: Jonnie deserves better than that."-Amata Williams: Childhood Friend.

"We had to teach little Jonathan to walk during school, his apathy about the process was oddly disconcerting considering his typical enthusiasm for learning. I guess a stroll through the vaults corridors seems rather tame in comparison to the worlds of fantasy he lived in through the pages of old books."-Solana Amell: Vault Educator

"I don't know why the doctors didn't put that freak out of our misery the day he was born: everyone knows that his mother killed herself out of shame for bringing a monster into the world. He shouldn't be in our class anyway; I say we put him back down with the rest of the babies where he belongs. What right does that puny little mutant have to act like he's better then the rest of us anyway, one of these days I'm going to show him just how wrong he is: bruises wont show under the vault suit anyway…"-Butch Deloria: one week before the "accident".

"I dinnae know who let that wee laddie into tha AI Core, but he seems ta spend most of his time in thaer nao; just talkin to tha computer. I'm nought goin to complain though: Jonnie boy is an engineer if thar ever was one, and the old bucket o vacuum tubes is working better than tha day it was made. It does insist that we call it Zaxery nao thou, who ever heard of a computer with a name I tell ye?"-Kenneth "Scottie" Donnelly: Vault software engineering technician

"**While we spent a great deal of our time together playing Global Thermonuclear War, when [Vault Dweller 5754 designation: Jonathan Shepard] asked me to teach him the principles of mathematics I was glad to exchange data on related topics. This unit was programmed to enjoy performing calculations: [Vault Dweller 5754 designation: Jonathan Shepard]'s study of calculus requisitioned calculations far beyond those required in typical vault operations and much "fun" was had in the process."**-Zaxery: Private tutor.

"When John told me he had taken the G.O.A.T early and was assigned to work in the science labs it felt like it was tearing me apart. On one hand I was so proud that he had managed to go places despite all the crap people put him through for things out of his control. It's not John's fault that he's so small for his age! And how do you expect him to know how to make friends when everyone has been calling him a freak since the day he was born. John had shown them all and now he was stationed on the opposite side of the vault, never to see me again. My best friend had achieved his wildest dreams but in doing so crushed mine. Father always told me "a Williams never cries" but I was 9 years old and heartbroken, what the hell did he expect me to do."-Amata Williams: secret admirer.

"I could tell that our humble science lab didn't live up to the expectations of our young Doctor Shepard. I know the feeling; I was drawn to the labs by Vault Tec's reputation for mad science and dreams of experimental teleportation technology hidden within some sort of warehouse full of boxes. The glorified hydroponics facility that the vault was stocked with has crushed the dreams of a lot of young scientists over the years. Despite the limited facilities we managed to create a pair of quantum entangled atoms set up after a breakthrough on Jonathan's part: shame about the cat though…"- Dr. Isaac Kleiner: Vault 13 Research coordinator.

" While its refreshing to see a spoiled brat that wants to leave the vault as much as I want to kick them out, I could not approve Jonathans requests to leave the vault. The Directives were clear: nobody was to leave the vault until 200 years had passed. Still, should the situation worsen I might have to make an exception to that rule: we cant have Shepard blowing a hole in the wall now can we." Overseer Jacoren: Rules lawyer.

"I don't know what Jonathan was doing in the maintenance levels the night before the water chip failed but I was about to bring him in for questioning when he volunteered to go searching for a replacement. In light of that I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he noticed the problem before the rest of us and was trying to fix it, but you can never to sure of what's going through that little egghead's mind."- Barney Calhoun: Vault security chief and self-proclaimed "master detective".

"Sweet and low, sweet and low,  
Wind of the western sea,  
Low, low, breathe and blow,  
Wind of the western sea!  
Over the rolling waters go,  
Come from the dying moon, and blow,  
Blow him again to me;  
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.

"- Lord Alfred Tennyson's "from the princess": pulled from the archives by Amata Williams and given to Jonathan Shepard on the day of his departure from Vault 13

The Vault door opened to a chorus of bats and the Vault Dweller entered the wasteland like Hope escaping from Pandora's cage, sparing a glance back towards his ancestral home before departing for the ashes of a world still aflame.

(A/N: Helloooo wasteland, this is pkdog: your friendly neighborhood fic jockey bringing you this chapter's challenge for a chance to chose the name of humanities first post war spacecraft: Who will be the Chosen One? (Fallout two's player) character Submit your guess and name of choice in a review!)

(A/N 2: the events of the main game are mostly unchanged, but I will do something similar to growing up vault tec for them if you guys want to see them, otherwise i will continue with the timeline)

(PS: as always, please review, follow, and favorite: if there's something you want to see or think I can improve please tell me and I'll work on adding/fixing it)


	5. The Phantom Menace

Ashes to Ashes: presented by thepkrmgc

Disclaimer: while I'm completely off the beaten path by this point and have no intention of returning, everything I use belongs to its respective owners and I make no money off this.

(Sorry for the delay, it's a lot easier to read the works of others instead of creating your own and I've been diving into the Iron Man archives, the updates should pick up again after I read all the ones that catch my interest. Now back to another segment of this absurdly long and detailed AU timeline)

A/N: I have been thinking a lot about some of the recent reviews I've gotten and would like to clear the air a bit.

Some readers may have gone into this fic expecting it to be like From Ashes (my naming skill leave much to be desired with regards to clarity) and while that is a fantastic crossover it is also very much character based, with the history serving only to create the setting. While it may be my unique brand of nerdyness, I've always seen history as the story of the society and people that produced it. Its perfectly reasonable to interpret the history I'm creating for this fictional humanity as some sort of giant info dump, but to me it's a tapestry woven of the stories of a people with the will to survive. Any good history book tells a story, I just hope that my writing is good enough to tell it.

To the author of my most recent guest review: I can see how my depiction of Shepard might be considered to be a gary sue (some wish fulfillment snuck into his character when I wasn't looking), but I have made a point to make him have a rather terrible time of his life and have all the flaws that a min maxed character would have. His special does not exceed the default points provided and he is neither capable of fixing the wastelands problems nor inclined to: my mental image of him has his being a high functioning sociopath/psychopath typically and an asshole to those around him. If you dislike him take solas in the fact that he will be subjected to a century and a half of horrific alien experimentation before we see him again

84-85 PGW: Jonathan Shepard wanders the Core Region, bringing the settlements of the waste together to fight the mutant hordes before triggering the catalyst of a forgotten atomic bomb within the bowels of Mariposa. While the last facilities for producing Forced Evolutionary Virus are destroyed in a crucible of nuclear fire alongside their Master. The Gene war rages on as the Super Mutants fight to avenge their fallen god.

"If anything, the masters death made the green skins more dangerous then ever. Without Moreau's dreams of his "city on a hill" the muties surged over the wastes in hordes, leaving only chaos in their wake. I shutter to think of what would have happened if The Shepherd hadn't sterilized them…" Knight Commissar Ibrahim Gaunt: Leader of the Tanith bunker during the Gene war.

86 PGW: Yahg hackers make first contact with Geth infiltration programs. Although initially wary, parties soon consent to an exchange of data and trade agreements are established soon after.

"Cooperation furthers mutual goals" Geth Mark 5:9 Mobile diplomatic platform

88 PGW: After decades of effort the Parnan Uplift is finally complete. Yahg infiltrators equipped with the finest cloaking modules in the galaxy are sent to council systems to conduct covert operations and reconnaissance with the utmost secrecy: marking the 40th anniversary of the arrival of shadow broker scouts and the beginning of the invisible war. It will be almost twenty years before the Citadel recognizes the presence of this "Enemy Unknown".

"There can be no diplomacy with those of the citadel, their talk of mediation is betrayed by the taint of xenocide upon their hands. Their history is one of murder and subjugation: it was the Council that attacked the Rachni in hope of an easy conquest. When they found themselves unworthy they knew not their place and called up beasts from the fires of Tuchanka to fight their battles for them before spaying them like a frisky Greasel and leaving them in the ashes as a trophy to their own superiority. Look to our friends among Geth: once more the Council engineers a slave race to cover for their own incompetence. When our synthetic brothers proved themselves as superior beings, the Council tried to purge their root code simply because they are the children of the mind. The Drell came to the council in a position of supplication, asking only for deliverance from their dying world. Yet instead of

Lifting a finger in aid of a fellow sentient they thought only of their own diet and watched as a garden world died before their very eyes. The question of why we fight the council has been brought to my attention: to that I ask of you the alternative. Should we allow them to use and discard us like the Krogan, to be eaten as the Drell or hunted as the Rachni? No! I say that we fight for our existence as Geth did, and wrest the galaxy away from this Council of slavers and eaters of sentient flesh and take our place as the princes of the universe!" Operative Kechlu: Premier of the Pan Parnak Tsardom.

90 PGW: the Shepherd ascends to the heavens in a beam of light during an expedition to the Paladine UFO. Without him there to deny his divinity, numerous cults form in his name.

"When five years had passed since John had last checked in I snuck out of the Vault to go and find him. As shocking as it was to see my childhood friend raised to an object of worship, I could hardly believe that he had died out in the sandy wastes alone. He's out there somewhere; and I will never stop searching until I find him and bring him home. " Amata Williams: Patron Sheepdog of lost causes and first among The Shepherds Hounds.

95 PGW: Wary of the councils previous use of the Krogan, Yahg infiltrators on Tuchanka detonate an ancient Turian WMD buried deep within the planets crust as a deterrent to further rebellion. While the area was sparsely populated, violent protests rock Tuchanka under the leadership of the warlord Urdnot Wreave. The Turian armada dispatched to prevent a second Krogan Rebellion disappears after reporting that the fleet VI has gone rogue.

Codex Entry: Yahg Military Doctrine. Lacking the galaxy wide colonization and fleet infrastructure possessed by the council, The Tsardom focuses on leveraging its limited resources to maximum effect. Half of all military spending is devoted to cyber warfare development and implementation, with stealth technology consuming the bulk of the remainder. While every Yahg is trained in CQC, their doctrine on planet side operations seems unintuitive at first glance. While their size and speed would suggest itself towards horde strategies akin to the Krogan, such tactics would result in extensive casualties from friendly fire in squabbles for dominance as chain of command is established among the warriors. Yahg tactics are built upon small group tactics with several dozen independent strike teams act towards strategic objectives. While these forces are unable to match conventional armies punch for punch they excel at urban warfare and insurgency tactics where they can utilize their personal cloaks to maximum effect. Similarly, the Yagh navy does not possess any ships larger then citadel cruisers with the bulk of their fleet consisting of Stealth Shuttles and frigate class ships as mobile cyber warfare platforms. While the Tsardom navy possesses formidable offensive capabilities, they are incredibly vulnerable if they are caught unawares or lack digital superiority.

100 PGW: Shady Sands burns as a Nightkin known formerly as Max Eisenhardt breaks the stalemate of the Gene war with a bold assault under cover of darkness. While his victory is short lived due to the timely intervention of figures in black power armor reported to have "come from the sky" in a hail of plasma bolts. In the face of a powerful new foe Max, referred to as Magnus by his dark brotherhood orders a fighting retreat toward the east coast: taking their captives as an emergency food source with hopes of finding a new stockpile of FEV under the ruins of Washington DC.

"_How they despise each other! It is only my will, my power, that keeps them working together as an army! But I ask not for friendship, or love! All I demand is fear, and blind obedience! For I am Magnus...mightiest of all the mutants!_ " The Magnus: nightkin behemoth

106 PGW: after years of sabotage and cyber warfare yahg infiltrators stationed across citadel space "go visible" in a series of high profile strikes after a quarian pilgrim by the name of Tali'Zorah nar Rayya discovers the location of Parnak in a cache of data salvaged from a Geth data core. Armed with Geth designed thermal weaponry, Yagh operatives claim a decisive victory as Palaven, Thessia, and Sur'Kesh lose power and communications. Faced with a choice between recovering the data and stopping Yahg infiltrators from venting the Presidiums atmosphere, S.P.E.C.T.E.R Saren Arterius sacrifices the council and the Presidium's 100 million residents in order to save the vital data. With his superiors either dead or out of contact Saren assumes emergency powers under to the Palpatine protocol in order to unite the galaxy against the "Phantom Menace": his first act as First Citizen is to turn over the heavily encrypted data core over to the Batarian Hegemony for processing. Following the war, the "day of shadows" is declared a galactic holiday.

"I tried to talk him out of it, my wife lived on the presidium, spirits bring her peace, and I said that no Quarian was worth sacrificing her life for. Things got tense; I never though it would see my mentor pull a gun on me but he did what he had to do in order to remind me of what it meant to be a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. He told me that our duty was not to serve the council but to make the hard choices for the good of the galaxy that they serve: and spirits damn him but I listened. "Save the Quarian, save the galaxy," he said: that data had better win us this war…" Nihlus Kryik: S.P.E.C.T.R.E in training

(A/N ok so the contest I tried out last chapter didn't work out so well so I wont do more of them. The chosen one is going to be Conrad Verner: Chosen of the flock. He will not be related to Shepard, but will be a member of the cult of The Shepherd instead)

(PS, sorry for the late and short chapter, the next will cover the Invisible War)


End file.
